Electric power generator based on photon-phonon interactions in a photonic crystal

Abstract

A solar power plant (10) capable of generating electricity comprising a light pipe carrying highly concentrated solar light (19), a hot reservoir (24), a cold reservoir (20), and a plurality of large-scale solid-state nano-structured photonic crystals (12) that are capable of recycling out-of-band photons with transition energies associated with a photovoltaic cell (13) into photons with in-band energies associated with the same photovoltaic cell (13) when photon energy is subjected to propagation through a thermal temperature gradient that is held across a suitably nano-structured photonic crystal (12). The input thermal photons from the hot thermal reservoir (24) are shifted in energy to the optimal photovoltaic cell energy for electron-hole pair generation by work that is expanded by the heat engine to convert said input photons into phonons and then back to photons again at a new wavelength through a process of phonon rethermalization occurring inside the nano-structured photonic crystal (12).

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]Not Applicable.FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH[0002]Not ApplicableSEQUENCE LISTING OR PROGRAM[0003]Not ApplicableBACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0004]1. Field of Invention[0005]The present invention relates the generation of electricity through a process that converts radiative heat energy into electricity through the use of photovoltaic cells, whereby photons are translated from out-of-band spectral regions of a photovoltaic cell to in-band spectral regions of the photovoltaic cell by means of intermediary phonons located in a nano-structured solid-state heat-engine, which is based on Photonic Crystals that can separate both photons and phonons spatially and energetically and apply the optimal energy photons to a photovoltaic cell to efficiently generate electricity.[0006]2. Prior Art[0007]Photovoltaic cells, also called solar cells, convert light into electricity by means of an electronic band-gap, which is typically formed as a pn-junction in...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Any energy that is converted into phonons is typically lost as thermal heating of the photovoltaic cell.

This energy is lost to the heating of the material.

Again this is wasted energy.

As the number of layers of a stacked photovoltaic device increases the mutual interference between layers, caused by lattice mismatches, increases causing increased light absorption and reduced performance of the solar cell.

This proved to be difficult due to the large amount of hardware required, especially for spaceflight hardware, which is designed to be low mass.

Large numbers of bounces greatly increase the probability of absorption and dissipation as heat.

Finally, and most importantly this prior art is unable to exploit temperature differences to generate electricity.

This precludes applications such as turning the heat energy generated by a nuclear reactor directly to electricity.

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